Methods and systems for playing back indexed conversations based on the presence of other people

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are provided herein for playing back indexed conversations based on the presence of other people. When a user asks a query, the system monitors the area, determines the other users in the area, and searches its database for a conversation that addresses the query in consideration of the other users present in the area. The system filters the indexed conversations to find conversations that included all the users present and determines the best matching conversation based on the words of the query as well as the keywords from the conversation. Once the system has determined the best match conversation, the system plays back the conversation to the user.

BACKGROUND

With intelligent personal assistants, like Amazon Alexa or Google Home,users are now able to ask for information without accessing a screen orpersonal device. These personal assistants listen to the usersthroughout the day and provide information when asked. However, theseassistants answer the questions without considering the other peoplenearby. When a user asks a question about scheduled events or memoswhich may include sensitive information, the personal assistants providethe information regardless of whether all people in the room are theintended recipients of that information. The assistants lack the abilityto filter out some more sensitive information based on the other usersin the area.

SUMMARY

Methods and systems are provided herein for playing back indexedconversations based on the presence of other people. When a user asks aquery, the system monitors the area, determines the other users in thearea, and searches its database for a conversation that addresses thequery in consideration of the other users present in the area. Thesystem filters the indexed conversations to find conversations thatincluded all the users present and determines the best matchingconversation based on the words of the query as well as the keywordsfrom the conversation. Once the system has determined the best matchconversation, the system plays back the conversation to the user.

In some aspects, the media guidance application receives from the user aquery and monitors an area around the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may record the users that enter and exit an areavia camera or by tracking the user's personal devices to find that usersBob and Joe are in the area. The area around the user may be a specificroom or designated location or simply a threshold distance around theuser. The area around the user may be within a vehicle such as a car.The media guidance application detects other users within the areaaround the user. For example, the media guidance application may detectthat Bob is within a certain specified distance of Joe. The mediaguidance application parses the query into a set of words. For example,Joe's query may be “What are my plans for Friday?” may be parsed into aset of words including “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.

The media guidance application accesses a database of indexedconversations. Each entry in the database of indexed conversationsincludes a portion of a conversation, a record of users participating inthe conversation, and a set of keywords associated with theconversation. In some embodiments, the portions of conversations may beconversations previously recorded by the media guidance application. Insome embodiments, the portions of conversations may also beconversations recorded and uploaded by a user. For example, the mediaguidance application may have an entry with a portion of conversationthat includes the words “Let's plan to have dinner on Friday night. Yes,that works,” a list of keywords such as plan, dinner, Friday, and a listof participants such as Bill, Bob, and Joe.

The media guidance application searches the database of indexedconversations for a set of entries associated with a correspondingrecord of users for each entry that includes the user. For example, themedia guidance application may search the entries for all the entriesthat list Joe as a participant.

The media guidance application filters the set of entries so that eachentry in the set of entries has a corresponding record of users thatincludes the other users within the area around the user in thecorresponding record of users. For example, the media guidanceapplication may filter the entries to find the entries that also haveBob as a participant.

The media guidance application compares, for each entry in the set ofentries, the corresponding set of keywords to the set of words from theparsed query. For example, the media guidance application may comparethe keywords of plan, dinner, and Friday, to the parsed query with words“what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”. The media guidance applicationdetermines, based on the comparison, for each entry, an amount of thecorresponding keywords that match the set of words. For example, themedia guidance application determines that plans and Friday from thequery match plan and Friday from the entry.

The media guidance application determines an entry in the set of entrieswith a best match based on the amount. For example, the media guidanceapplication determines that this entry with matching keywords of planand Friday is the best match entry. The media guidance applicationselects the determined entry of the database of indexed conversations.The media guidance application retrieves the portion of the conversationassociated with the selected entry. For example, the media guidanceapplication retrieves the conversation portion of “Let's plan to havedinner on Friday night. Yes, that works.” The media guidance applicationplays back the retrieved portion of the conversation. For example, themedia guidance application may play back that portion to Joe on Joe'suser device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application determines arequired level of privacy based the other users within the area aroundthe user and a set of rules. The media guidance application maydetermine the level of privacy based on whether any of the other userswithin the area are below an age threshold. For example, if children arein the area a high level of privacy may be required in order to preventinappropriate language and discussion of adult topics. The mediaguidance application may determine the level of privacy based on whetherkeywords that correspond to the selected entry in the set of entriesmeet the set of rules. For example, if there are sex-related keywords, ahigh level of privacy may be required. The media guidance applicationmay determine the level of privacy based on whether identities of eachof the other users meet the set of rules. For example, if Joe isplanning a surprise birthday party for Bob, he may set a rule thatnothing related to the party may be discussed in front of Bob.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application generates a responseto the query based on the retrieved portion of the conversation and thecorresponding keywords. For example, the media guidance applicationgenerates a response of “You have plans to have dinner on Friday”. Themedia guidance application may generate a set of responses to the querybased on the identified entry and the matching set of keywordsassociated, and may determine an appropriate response to the query fromthe set of responses that matches the determined level of privacy. Forexample, the media guidance application may generate multiple responseswith varying levels of detail about plans for dinner, some of whichinclude restaurants and times, and then determine that there are usersin the room which did not participate in the original conversation andso not all of the details are appropriate for playback.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select part ofthe retrieved portion for playback based on the determined level ofprivacy. For example, the media guidance application may identify aportion of the playback such as “Let's plan to have dinner on Fridaynight.” In some embodiments, each entry of the database of indexedconversations comprises links to supplemental information based on a setof keywords associated with a corresponding entry from the database. Forexample, an entry discussing plans for dinner at a restaurant mayinclude links to the restaurant or a link to the electroniccommunication indicating the reservation for the dinner. The mediaguidance application may play back the retrieved portion of theconversation by providing the links to supplemental information of theentry to the user on a user device. For example, the media guidanceapplication may provide in the playback the information about thereservation at the restaurant from the linked electronic communicationin the entry.

In some aspects, the media guidance application receives from the user aquery and monitors an area around the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may record the users that enter and exit an areavia camera or by tracking the user's personal devices to find that usersBob and Joe are in the area. The area around the user may be a specificroom or designated location or simply a threshold distance around theuser. The area around the user may be within a vehicle such as a car.The media guidance application detects other users within the areaaround the user. For example, the media guidance application may detectthat Bob is within a certain specified distance of Joe. The mediaguidance application parses the query into a set of words. For example,Joe's query may be “What are my plans for Friday?” may be parsed into aset of words including “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.

The media guidance application accesses a database of indexedconversations. Each entry in the database of indexed conversationsincludes a portion of a conversation, a record of users participating inthe conversation, and a set of keywords associated with theconversation. In some embodiments, the portions of conversations may beconversations previously recorded by the media guidance application. Insome embodiments, the portions of conversations may also beconversations recorded and uploaded by a user. For example, the mediaguidance application may have an entry with a portion of conversationthat includes the words “Let's plan to have dinner on Friday night. Yes,that works,” a list of keywords such as plan, dinner, Friday, and a listof participants such as Bill, Bob, and Joe.

The media guidance application retrieves, from the database of indexedconversations, a set of entries from the database of indexedconversations. The corresponding record of users for each entry in theset of entries includes the user. For example, the media guidanceapplication may search the entries for all the entries that list Joe asa participant.

The media guidance application searches each set of keywords associatedwith each entry in the set of entries for a set of keywords that matchesthe set of words from the parsed query. For example, the media guidanceapplication may search for entries that include keywords such as “plan”and “Friday” based on the words “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday” from thequery. The media guidance application identifies an entry with thematching set of keywords. For example, the media guidance applicationmay identify an entry with the keywords “plan”, “dinner”, and “Friday”.

The media guidance application processes the relevant portion of theconversation from the identified entry to determine context cluesrelated to the query. For example, the media guidance application mayprocess the conversation to find the portion stating “Let's plan to havedinner on Friday”. The media guidance application generates a set ofresponses to the query based on the determined context clues related tothe query. For example, the media guidance application may generatemultiple responses with varying levels of detail about plans for dinner,some of which include restaurants and times, based on the conversation.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application processes therelevant portion of the conversation from the identified entry todetermine context clues related to the query by retrieving the portionof the conversation from the entry, and retrieving the set of words. Themedia guidance application then determines a set of matched words basedon the portion of the conversation and the set of matched words. The setof matched words includes the words that are included in both the set ofwords from the query as well as found in the portion of theconversation. For example, a set of matched words could be “plan” and“Friday”. The media guidance application then generates a set oftemplates from the set of matched words, with each template in the setof templates requiring words of specific categories. The media guidanceapplication may access a database of templates to generate a set oftemplates based on the matched words. Each template may be a genericresponse with blank spots tagged with specific categories of words to befilled in. For example, the word “plan” may generate the templates of“Yes, there is a plan on (day of week)” and “No, there is not a plan on(day of week)”. The media guidance application may use the set ofmatched words together. For example, the words “plan” and “Friday” mayalso generate the template responses of “Yes, there are plans for(noun/activity) on Friday” and “No, there are no plans for(noun/activity) on Friday”. Each template response may be tagged with adefault privacy level. The media guidance application then searches theportion of the conversation for words with a category that match arequired specific category for a template from the set of templates. Forexample, the media guidance application searches the portion of theconversation for a noun that is related to an activity and finds theword “dinner”.

The media guidance application may generate the response to the querybased on the determined context clues related to the query by generatinga set of responses to the query based on the set of templates and thesearched words with a category that matches the required specificcategory, and filtering the set of responses to the query based on theportion of the conversation and the set of words. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate a response “Yes, there are plans fordinner on Friday”, “No, there are no plans for dinner on Friday”, and“You plan to have dinner on Friday”. The portion of the conversation“Let's have dinner on Friday” does not include a word in the negativecategory and so the response “No, there are no plans for dinner onFriday” is not appropriate. In another example, the set of wordsincludes a question word “What” which is not associated with a yes/noanswer and so “Yes, there are plans for dinner on Friday” is notappropriate. The media guidance application may identify specificsegments of a response for possible filtering. For example, if the fullresponse is “You plan to have dinner on Friday and then go home to havesex”, the phrases “and then go home to have sex” or “to have sex” may beidentified as segments of the response containing a known keyword thatmay be removed under a high privacy setting.

The media guidance application compares the other users within the areaaround the user to a set of rules. The media guidance applicationdetermines a level of privacy based on the comparing. The media guidanceapplication may determine the level of privacy based on whether any ofthe other users within the area are below an age threshold. For example,if children are in the area a high level of privacy may be required inorder to prevent inappropriate language and discussion of adult topics.The media guidance application may determine the level of privacy basedon whether keywords corresponding to the selected entry in the set ofentries meet the set of rules. For example, if there are sex-relatedkeywords, a high level of privacy may be required. The media guidanceapplication may determine the level of privacy based on whetheridentities of each of the other users meet the set of rules. Forexample, if Joe is planning a surprise birthday party for Bob, he mayset a rule that nothing related to the party may be discussed in frontof Bob. The media guidance application may determine the level ofprivacy based on whether the set of words meet the set of rules. Forexample, the query may include words relating to sex and so a high levelof privacy may be required.

The media guidance application filters out segments of the responsebased the determined level of privacy. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a high level of privacy is required due to thepresence of users under a threshold age, and may then proceed to removethe segment “and then go home to have sex” from a response which wouldhave otherwise been “You plan to have dinner on Friday and then go hometo have sex”. The media guidance application provides to the user theresponse to the query. For example, the media guidance application mayplay back the appropriate response on a user device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select part ofthe retrieved portion for playback based on the determined level ofprivacy. For example, the media guidance application may identify aportion of the playback such as “Let's plan to have dinner on Fridaynight.” In some embodiments, each entry of the database of indexedconversations comprises links to supplemental information based on a setof keywords associated with a corresponding entry from the database. Forexample, an entry discussing plans for dinner at a restaurant mayinclude links to the restaurant or a link to the electroniccommunication indicating the reservation for the dinner. The mediaguidance application may play back the retrieved portion of theconversation by providing the links to supplemental information of theentry to the user on a user device. For example, the media guidanceapplication may provide in the playback the information about thereservation at the restaurant from the linked electronic communicationin the entry.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B show an illustrative embodiment of groups of usersin an area, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a database of indexedconversations, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in playing backindexed conversations based on the presence of other people, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is another flowchart of illustrative steps involved in playingback indexed conversations based on the presence of other people, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is flowchart of illustrative steps involved in replying toqueries based on indexed conversations and context, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is another flowchart of illustrative steps involved in replyingto queries based on indexed conversations and context, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in processing aquery received from the user, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in detecting otherusers in monitored area around the user, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in searchingdatabase of indexed conversations for a set of entries, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining theentry of the set of entries that matches the query, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in generating aset of response to the query, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining aprivacy level, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;and

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in providing anappropriate response from the set of responses to the user, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Methods and systems are provided herein for playing back indexedconversations based on the presence of other people. When a user asks aquery, the system monitors the area, determines the other users in thearea, and searches its database for a conversation that addresses thequery in consideration of the other users present in the area. Thesystem filters the indexed conversations to find conversations thatincluded all the users present and determines the best matchingconversation based on the words of the query as well as the keywordsfrom the conversation. Once the system has determined the best matchconversation, the system plays back the conversation to the user.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of groups of users in an area,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Area 102 and area104 show the same room but with different groups of users. Users 104,106, and 108 are in area 102 and users 110, 112, 114, and 116 are inarea 104.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application receives from theuser (e.g., user 106) a query and monitors an area around the user(e.g., area 102). For example, the media guidance application may recordthe users that enter and exit area 102 via camera or by tracking theuser's personal devices to find that users Bob and Joe (e.g., users 104and 106) are in area 102. The area around the user may be a specificroom or designated location or simply a threshold distance around theuser. The area around the user may be within a vehicle such as a car.The media guidance application detects other users within area 102. Thearea may refer to a region within a distance from a user (e.g., user106) or a specified region. For example, the media guidance applicationmay detect that Bob (e.g., user 108) is within a certain specifieddistance of Joe (e.g., user 106). The media guidance application parsesthe query into a set of words. For example, Joe's query may be “What aremy plans for Friday?” may be parsed into a set of words including“what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.

The media guidance application accesses a database of indexedconversations. Each entry in the database of indexed conversationsincludes a portion of a conversation, a record of users participating inthe conversation, and a set of keywords associated with theconversation. In some embodiments, the portions of conversations may beconversations previously recorded by the media guidance application. Insome embodiments, the portions of conversations may also beconversations recorded and uploaded by a user. For example, the mediaguidance application may have an entry with a portion of conversationthat includes the words “Let's plan to have dinner on Friday night. Yes,that works,” a list of keywords such as plan, dinner, Friday, and a listof participants such as Bill, Bob, and Joe. The conversations may beconversations that were recorded in areas 102 and 104 with records ofparticipants of users that were within areas 102 and 104 at the time ofthe recording. For example, the conversation may be recorded in area 104and users 110, 112, 114, and 116 may be included in the list ofparticipants.

The media guidance application searches the database of indexedconversations for a set of entries associated with a correspondingrecord of users for each entry that includes the user. For example, themedia guidance application may search the entries for all the entriesthat list Joe as a participant.

The media guidance application filters the set of entries so that eachentry in the set of entries has a corresponding record of users thatincludes the other users within area 102 in the corresponding record ofusers. For example, the media guidance application may filter theentries to find the entries that also have Bob (e.g., user 108) as aparticipant.

The media guidance application compares, for each entry in the set ofentries, the corresponding set of keywords to the set of words from theparsed query. For example, the media guidance application may comparethe keywords of plan, dinner, and Friday, to the parsed query with words“what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”. The media guidance applicationdetermines, based on the comparison, for each entry, an amount of thecorresponding keywords that match the set of words. For example, themedia guidance application determines that plans and Friday from thequery match plan and Friday from the entry.

The media guidance application determines an entry in the set of entrieswith a best match based on the amount. For example, the media guidanceapplication determines that this entry with matching keywords of planand Friday is the best match entry. The media guidance applicationselects the determined entry of the database of indexed conversations.The media guidance application retrieves the portion of the conversationassociated with the selected entry. For example, the media guidanceapplication retrieves the conversation portion of “Let's plan to havedinner on Friday night. Yes, that works.” The media guidance applicationplays back the retrieved portion of the conversation. For example, themedia guidance application may play back that portion to Joe on Joe'suser device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application determines a levelof privacy based the other users (e.g., users 108 and 110) within thearea 102 and a set of rules 106. The media guidance application maydetermine the level of privacy based on whether any of the other users(e.g., users 108 and 110) within the area 102 below an age threshold.For example, if children are in the area a high level of privacy may berequired in order to prevent inappropriate language and discussion ofadult topics. The media guidance application may determine the level ofprivacy based on whether keywords corresponding to the selected entry inthe set of entries meet the set of rules 106. For example, if there aresex-related keywords, a high level of privacy may be required. The mediaguidance application may determine the level of privacy based on whetheridentities of each of the other users (e.g., users 108 and 110) meet theset of rules 106. For example, if Joe is planning a surprise birthdayparty for Bob, he may set a rule that nothing related to the party maybe discussed in front of Bob.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application generates a responseto the query based on the retrieved portion of the conversation and thecorresponding keywords. For example, the media guidance applicationgenerates a response of “You have plans to have dinner on Friday”. Themedia guidance application may generate a set of responses to the querybased on the identified entry and the matching set of keywordsassociated, and determines an appropriate response to the query from theset of responses that matches the determined level of privacy. Forexample, the media guidance application may generate multiple responseswith varying levels of detail about plans for dinner, some of whichinclude restaurants and times, and then determine that there are usersin the room which did not participate in the original conversation andso not all of the details are appropriate for playback.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select part ofthe retrieved portion for playback based on the determined level ofprivacy. For example, the media guidance application may identify aportion of the playback such as “Let's plan to have dinner on Fridaynight.” In some embodiments, each entry of the database of indexedconversations comprises links to supplemental information based on a setof keywords associated with a corresponding entry from the database. Forexample, an entry discussing plans for dinner at a restaurant mayinclude links to the restaurant or a link to the electroniccommunication indicating the reservation for the dinner. The mediaguidance application may play back the retrieved portion of theconversation by providing the links to supplemental information of theentry to the user on a user device. For example, the media guidanceapplication may provide in the playback the information about thereservation at the restaurant from the linked electronic communicationin the entry.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application retrieves, from thedatabase of indexed conversations, a set of entries from the database ofindexed conversations. The corresponding record of users for each entryin the set of entries includes the user 106. In some embodiments, theportions of conversations may be conversations previously recorded bythe media guidance application. In some embodiments, the portions ofconversations may also be conversations recorded and uploaded by a user.For example, the media guidance application may search the entries forall the entries that list Joe (e.g., user 106) as a participant.

The media guidance application searches each set of keywords associatedwith each entry in the set of entries for a set of keywords that matchesthe set of words from the parsed query. For example, the media guidanceapplication may search for entries that include keywords such as “plan”and “Friday” based on the words “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday” from thequery. The media guidance application identifies an entry with thematching set of keywords. For example, the media guidance applicationmay identify an entry with the keywords “plan”, “dinner”, and “Friday”.

The media guidance application processes the relevant portion of theconversation from the identified entry to determine context cluesrelated to the query. For example, the media guidance application mayprocess the conversation to find the portion stating “Let's plan to havedinner on Friday”. The media guidance application generates a set ofresponses to the query based on the determined context clues related tothe query. For example, the media guidance application may generatemultiple responses with varying levels of detail about plans for dinner,some of which include restaurants and times, based on the conversation.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application processes therelevant portion of the conversation from the identified entry todetermine context clues related to the query by retrieving the portionof the conversation from the entry, and retrieving the set of words. Themedia guidance application then determines a set of matched words basedon the portion of the conversation and the set of matched words. The setof matched words includes the words that are included in both the set ofwords from the query as well as found in the portion of theconversation. For example, a set of matched words could be “plan” and“Friday”. The media guidance application then generates a set oftemplates from the set of matched words, with each template in the setof templates requiring words of specific categories. The media guidanceapplication may access a database of templates to generate a set oftemplates based on the matched words. Each template may be a genericresponse with blank spots tagged with specific categories of words to befilled in. For example, the word “plan” may generate the templates of“Yes, there is a plan on (day of week)” and “No, there is not a plan on(day of week)”. The media guidance application may use the set ofmatched words together. For example, the words “plan” and “Friday” mayalso generate the template responses of “Yes, there are plans for(noun/activity) on Friday” and “No, there are no plans for(noun/activity) on Friday”. Each template response may be tagged with adefault privacy level. The media guidance application then searches theportion of the conversation for words with a category that match arequired specific category for a template from the set of templates Forexample, the media guidance application searches the portion of theconversation for a noun that is related to an activity and finds theword “dinner”.

The media guidance application may generate the response to the querybased on the determined context clues related to the query by generatinga set of responses to the query based on the set of templates and thesearched words with a category that matches the required specificcategory, and filtering the set of responses to the query based on theportion of the conversation and the set of words. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate a response “Yes, there are plans fordinner on Friday”, “No, there are no plans for dinner on Friday”, and“You plan to have dinner on Friday”. The portion of the conversation“Let's have dinner on Friday” does not include a word in the negativecategory and so the response “No, there are no plans for dinner onFriday” is not appropriate. In another example, the set of wordsincludes a question word “What” which is not associated with a yes/noanswer and so “Yes, there are plans for dinner on Friday” is notappropriate. The media guidance application may identify specificsegments of a response for possible filtering. For example, if the fullresponse is “You plan to have dinner on Friday and then go home to havesex”, the phrases “and then go home to have sex” or “to have sex” may beidentified as segments of the response containing a known keyword thatmay be removed under a high privacy setting.

The media guidance application compares the other users (e.g., users 108and 110) within the area 102 around the user 106 to a set of rules 106.The media guidance application determines a level of privacy based onthe comparing. The media guidance application may determine the level ofprivacy based on whether any of the other users (e.g., users 108 and110) within the area 102 are below an age threshold. For example, ifchildren are in the area a high level of privacy may be required inorder to prevent inappropriate language and discussion of adult topics.The media guidance application may determine the level of privacy basedon whether keywords that correspond to the selected entry in the set ofentries meet the set of rules 106. For example, if there are sex-relatedkeywords, a high level of privacy may be required. The media guidanceapplication may determine the level of privacy based on whetheridentities of each of the other users (e.g., users 108 and 110) meet theset of rules 106. For example, if Joe is planning a surprise birthdayparty for Bob, he may set a rule that nothing related to the party maybe discussed in front of Bob. The media guidance application maydetermine the level of privacy based on whether the set of words meetthe set of rules 106. For example, the query may include words relatingto sex and so a high level of privacy may be required.

The media guidance application filters out segments of the responsebased the determined level of privacy. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine a high level of privacy is required due to thepresence of users under a threshold age, and may then proceed to removethe segment “and then go home to have sex” from a response which wouldhave otherwise been “You plan to have dinner on Friday and then go hometo have sex”. The media guidance application provides to the user theresponse to the query. For example, the media guidance application mayplay back the appropriate response on a user device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select part ofthe retrieved portion for playback based on the determined level ofprivacy. For example, the media guidance application may identify aportion of the playback such as “Let's plan to have dinner on Fridaynight.” In some embodiments, each entry of the database of indexedconversations comprises links to supplemental information based on a setof keywords associated with a corresponding entry from the database. Forexample, an entry discussing plans for dinner at a restaurant mayinclude links to the restaurant or a link to the electroniccommunication indicating the reservation for the dinner. The mediaguidance application may play back the retrieved portion of theconversation by providing the links to supplemental information of theentry to the user on a user device. For example, the media guidanceapplication may provide in the playback the information about thereservation at the restaurant from the linked electronic communicationin the entry.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a database of indexedconversations, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Database 202 shows entries 204, 206 and 208. Entry 204 includes aportion of a conversation as well as keywords 210 and the record ofparticipants 212.

The media guidance application searches the database of indexedconversations (e.g., database 202) for a set of entries (e.g., entries204 and 206) associated with a corresponding record of users for eachentry that includes the user (e.g., user 106). For example, the mediaguidance application may search the entries for all the entries thatlist Joe (e.g., user 106) as a participant.

The media guidance application filters the set of entries (e.g., entries204 and 206) so that each entry in the set of entries has acorresponding record of users (e.g., record of participants 212) thatincludes the other users within the area 102 around the user 106 in thecorresponding record of users. For example, the media guidanceapplication may filter the entries to find the entries that also haveBob (e.g., user 108) as a participant.

The media guidance application compares, for each entry in the set ofentries (e.g., entries 204 and 206), the corresponding set of keywords(e.g., keywords 210) to the set of words from the parsed query. Forexample, the media guidance application may compare the keywords ofplan, dinner, and Friday, to the parsed query with words “what”, “my”,“plans”, “Friday”. The media guidance application determines, based onthe comparison, for each entry, an amount of the corresponding keywordsthat match the set of words. For example, the media guidance applicationdetermines that plans and Friday from the query match plan and Fridayfrom the entry (e.g., entry 204).

The media guidance application determines an entry in the set of entries(e.g., entries 204 and 206) with a best match based on the amount. Forexample, the media guidance application determines that this entry withmatching keywords of plan and Friday is the best match entry. The mediaguidance application selects the determined entry of the database ofindexed conversations. The media guidance application retrieves theportion of the conversation associated with the selected entry (e.g.,entry 204). For example, the media guidance application retrieves theconversation portion of “Let's plan to have dinner on Friday night. Yes,that works.” The media guidance application plays back the retrievedportion of the conversation. For example, the media guidance applicationmay play back that portion to Joe on Joe's user device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application generates a responseto the query based on the retrieved portion of the conversation and thecorresponding keywords (e.g., keywords 210). For example, the mediaguidance application generates a response of “You have plans to havedinner on Friday”. The media guidance application may generate a set ofresponses to the query based on the identified entry and the matchingset of keywords associated, and determines an appropriate response tothe query from the set of responses that matches the determined level ofprivacy. For example, the media guidance application may generatemultiple responses with varying levels of detail about plans for dinner,some of which include restaurants and times, and then determine thatthere are users in the room which did not participate in the originalconversation and so not all of the details are appropriate for playback.

The media guidance application retrieves, from the database of indexedconversations (e.g., database 202), a set of entries (e.g., entries 204and 206) from the database of indexed conversations. The correspondingrecord of users (e.g., record of participants 212) for each entry in theset of entries includes the user 106. For example, the media guidanceapplication may search the entries for all the entries that list Joe(e.g., user 104) as a participant.

The media guidance application searches each set of keywords (e.g.,keywords 210) associated with each entry in the set of entries (e.g.,entries 204 and 206) for a set of keywords that matches the set of wordsfrom the parsed query. For example, the media guidance application maysearch for entries that include keywords such as “plan” and “Friday”based on the words “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday” from the query. Themedia guidance application identifies an entry with the matching set ofkeywords. For example, the media guidance application may identify anentry with the keywords “plan”, “dinner”, and “Friday”.

The media guidance application processes the relevant portion of theconversation from the identified entry (e.g., entry 204) to determinecontext clues related to the query. For example, the media guidanceapplication may process the conversation to find the portion stating“Let's plan to have dinner on Friday”. The media guidance applicationgenerates a set of responses to the query based on the determinedcontext clues related to the query. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate multiple responses with varying levels ofdetail about plans for dinner, some of which include restaurants andtimes, based on the conversation.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application processes therelevant portion of the conversation from the identified entry (e.g.,entry 204) to determine context clues related to the query by retrievingthe portion of the conversation from the entry (e.g., entry 204), andretrieving the set of words. The media guidance application thendetermines a set of matched words based on the portion of theconversation and the set of matched words. The set of matched wordsincludes the words that are included in both the set of words from thequery as well as found in the portion of the conversation. For example,a set of matched words could be “plan” and “Friday”. The media guidanceapplication then generates a set of templates from the set of matchedwords, with each template in the set of templates requiring words ofspecific categories. The media guidance application may access adatabase of templates to generate a set of templates based on thematched words. Each template may be a generic response with blank spotstagged with specific categories of words to be filled in. For example,the word “plan” may generate the templates of “Yes, there is a plan on(day of week)” and “No, there is not a plan on (day of week)”. The mediaguidance application may use the set of matched words together. Forexample, the words “plan” and “Friday” may also generate the templateresponses of “Yes, there are plans for (noun/activity) on Friday” and“No, there are no plans for (noun/activity) on Friday”. Each templateresponse may be tagged with a default privacy level. The media guidanceapplication then searches the portion of the conversation for words witha category that match a required specific category for a template fromthe set of templates For example, the media guidance applicationsearches the portion of the conversation for a noun that is related toan activity and finds the word “dinner”.

The media guidance application may generate the response to the querybased on the determined context clues related to the query by generatinga set of responses to the query based on the set of templates and thesearched words with a category that matches the required specificcategory, and filtering the set of responses to the query based on theportion of the conversation and the set of words. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate a response “Yes, there are plans fordinner on Friday”, “No, there are no plans for dinner on Friday”, and“You plan to have dinner on Friday”. The portion of the conversation“Let's have dinner on Friday” does not include a word in the negativecategory and so the response “No, there are no plans for dinner onFriday” is not appropriate. In another example, the set of wordsincludes a question word “What” which is not associated with a yes/noanswer and so “Yes, there are plans for dinner on Friday” is notappropriate. The media guidance application may identify specificsegments of a response for possible filtering. For example, if the fullresponse is “You plan to have dinner on Friday and then go home to havesex”, the phrases “and then go home to have sex” or “to have sex” may beidentified as segments of the response containing a known keyword thatmay be removed under a high privacy setting.

FIGS. 3-4 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 3-4 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 3-4 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 3 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 300arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 300 may include grid 302 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 304, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 306, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 302 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 308, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 310. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 310 may be provided inprogram information region 312. Region 312 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 302 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 314, recorded content listing 316, andInternet content listing 318. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 300 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings314, 316, and 318 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 302 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 302. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 320. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 320.)

Display 300 may also include video region 322, and options region 326.Video region 322 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 322 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 302. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 326 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 326 may be part of display 300 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 326 may concern features related to program listings in grid 302or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 6. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 4. Video mosaic display 400 includes selectable options 402 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 400, television listings option 404 isselected, thus providing listings 406, 408, 410, and 412 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 400 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 408 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 414 and text portion 416.Media portion 414 and/or text portion 416 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 414 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 400 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 406 islarger than listings 408, 410, and 412), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 5 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 500. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 6.User equipment device 500 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 502. I/O path 502 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 504, which includesprocessing circuitry 506 and storage 508. Control circuitry 504 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 502. I/O path 502 may connect control circuitry 504 (andspecifically processing circuitry 506) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 504 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 506. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 504 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 508). Specifically, control circuitry 504 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 504 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 504 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 504 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 6). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 508 thatis part of control circuitry 504. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 508 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 6, may be used to supplementstorage 508 or instead of storage 508.

Control circuitry 504 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 504 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 500. Circuitry 504 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 508 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 500, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 508.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 504 using user inputinterface 510. User input interface 510 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 512 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500. For example, display 512 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 510may be integrated with or combined with display 512. Display 512 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 512 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 512 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 512.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry504. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 504.Speakers 514 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 512 may be played throughspeakers 514. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers514.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 500. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage508), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 504 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 508 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 504 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 510. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 510 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 500 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 500. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 504 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 504) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 500. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 500.Equipment device 500 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 510 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 500 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 510.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 500 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 504). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 504 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 504. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 504. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 500 of FIG. 5 can be implemented in system 600 ofFIG. 6 as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,wireless user communications device 606, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 5 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, or awireless user communications device 606. For example, user televisionequipment 602 may, like some user computer equipment 604, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 604 may, like some television equipment 602, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 604, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 606.

In system 600, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless user communicationsdevice 606) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 614.Namely, user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, andwireless user communications device 606 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 614 via communications paths 608, 610, and 612, respectively.Communications network 614 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 608, 610, and 612 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 612 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 6 it is awireless path and paths 608 and 610 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 608, 610, and 612, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 614.

System 600 includes content source 616 and media guidance data source618 coupled to communications network 614 via communication paths 620and 622, respectively. Paths 620 and 622 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 608, 610,and 612. Communications with the content source 616 and media guidancedata source 618 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 616 and 618 withuser equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 are shown as throughcommunications network 614, in some embodiments, sources 616 and 618 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 608, 610, and 612.

Content source 616 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 616 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 616 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 616 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 618 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 618may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 618 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 618 mayprovide user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 508, and executedby control circuitry 504 of a user equipment device 500. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 504 of user equipment device 500and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 618) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 618), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 618 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices602, 604, and 606 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. YouTube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 600 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 6.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 614.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 616 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 602 and user computer equipment 604may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 606 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 614. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 616 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 618. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, and wirelessuser communications device 606. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 604 or wireless usercommunications device 606 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 604. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 614. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 5.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in playing backindexed conversations based on the presence of other people, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At 702, control circuitry 504 receives from the user a query. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may receive from user 104 a query aboutif there are plans for Friday. Process 700 proceeds to 704.

At 704, control circuitry 504 detects other users within the area aroundthe user. For example, control circuitry 504 may detect that Bob iswithin a certain specified threshold distance of Joe. Control circuitry504 may determine the locations of each user based on a user deviceassociated with the user. Control circuitry 504 may determine thelocations of each user based on monitoring of the area via camera,microphone, or other recording equipment. Process 700 proceeds to 706.

At 706, control circuitry 504 parses the query into a set of words. Forexample, Joe's query may be “What are my plans for Friday?” may beparsed into a set of words including “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.Process 700 proceeds to 708.

At 708, control circuitry 504 retrieves, from the database of indexedconversations, a set of entries from the database of indexedconversations, where each entry in the database of indexed conversationsincludes a portion of a conversation, a record of users participating inthe conversation, and a set of keywords associated with the conversationand where the corresponding record of users for each entry in the set ofentries includes the user and the other users within the area. Forexample, the database 202 may have an entry with a portion ofconversation that includes the words “Let's plan to have dinner onFriday night. Yes, that works,” a list of keywords such as plan, dinner,Friday, and a list of participants such as Bill, Bob, and Joe. Process700 proceeds to 710.

At 710, control circuitry 504 determines an entry in the set of entrieswith a best match based on the amount of the correspond set of keywordsthat match the set of words. For example, control circuitry 504determines that this entry with matching keywords of plan and Friday isthe best match entry. Process 700 proceeds to 712.

At 712, control circuitry 504 selects the determined entry of thedatabase of indexed conversations. Process 700 proceeds to 714.

At 714, control circuitry 504 retrieves the portion of the conversationassociated with the selected entry. For example, control circuitry 504retrieves the conversation portion of “Let's plan to have dinner onFriday night. Yes, that works.” Process 700 proceeds to 716.

At 716, control circuitry plays back the retrieved portion of theconversation. For example, control circuitry 504 may play back thatportion to Joe on Joe's user device. Control circuitry 504 may providethe retrieved portion of the conversation to a user device for playback.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is another flowchart of an illustrative process 800 for playingback indexed conversations based on the presence of other people, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At 802, control circuitry 504 receives from the user a query. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may receive from user 104 a query aboutif there are plans for Friday. Control circuitry 504 may receive a queryfrom a user via microphone, video camera, or any other recording ormonitoring equipment. Control circuitry 504 may receive the query viainput from a user device. Process 800 proceeds to 804.

At 804, control circuitry 504 monitors an area around the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may record or maintain a list ofthe users that enter and exit an area via camera or by tracking theuser's personal devices to find that users Bob and Joe are in the area.Process 800 proceeds to 806.

At 806, control circuitry 504 detects other users within the area aroundthe user. For example, control circuitry 504 may detect that Bob iswithin a certain specified distance of Joe. Control circuitry 504 maydetermine the locations of each user based on a user device associatedwith the user. Control circuitry 504 may determine the locations of eachuser based on monitoring of the area via camera, microphone, or otherrecording equipment. Control circuitry 504 may determine that users arein the same location based on determining that users are within athreshold distance of one another. Process 800 proceeds to 808.

At 808, control circuitry 504 parses the query into a set of words. Forexample, Joe's query may be “What are my plans for Friday?” may beparsed into a set of words including “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.Process 800 proceeds to 810.

At 810, control circuitry 504 accesses a database of indexedconversations, where each entry in the database of indexed conversationsincludes a portion of a conversation, a record of users participating inthe conversation, and a set of keywords associated with theconversation. For example, the database 202 may have an entry with aportion of conversation that includes the words “Let's plan to havedinner on Friday night. Yes, that works,” a list of keywords such asplan, dinner, Friday, and a list of participants such as Bill, Bob, andJoe. Process 800 proceeds to 812.

At 812, control circuitry 504 searches the database of indexedconversations for a set of entries associated with a correspondingrecord of users for each entry that includes the user. For example, thecontrol circuitry 504 may search the entries for all the entries thatlist Joe as a participant. Process 800 proceeds to 814.

At 814, control circuitry 504 filters the set of entries so that eachentry in the set of entries has a corresponding record of users thatincludes the other users within the area around the user in thecorresponding record of users. For example, control circuitry 504 mayfilter the entries to find the entries that also have Bob as aparticipant. Process 800 proceeds to 816.

At 816, control circuitry 504 compares, for each entry in the set ofentries, the corresponding set of keywords to the set of words from theparsed query. For example, control circuitry 504 may compare thekeywords of plan, dinner, and Friday, to the parsed query with words“what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”. Process 800 proceeds to 818.

At 818, control circuitry 504 determines, based on the comparison, foreach entry, an amount of the corresponding keywords that match the setof words. For example, control circuitry 504 determines that plans andFriday from the query match plan and Friday from the entry. Process 800proceeds to 820.

At 820, control circuitry 504 determines an entry in the set of entrieswith a best match based on the amount. For example, control circuitry504 determines that this entry with matching keywords of plan and Fridayis the best match entry. Process 800 proceeds to 822.

At 822, control circuitry 504 selects the determined entry of thedatabase of indexed conversations. Process 800 proceeds to 824.

At 824, control circuitry 504 retrieves the portion of the conversationassociated with the selected entry. For example, control circuitry 504retrieves the conversation portion of “Let's plan to have dinner onFriday night. Yes, that works.” Process 800 proceeds to 826.

At 826, control circuitry 504 plays back the retrieved portion of theconversation. Control circuitry 504 may provide the retrieved portion ofthe conversation to a user device for playback. For example, controlcircuitry 504 may play back that portion to Joe on Joe's user device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 8.

FIG. 9 is flowchart an illustrative process 900 for replying to queriesbased on indexed conversations and context, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

At 902, control circuitry 504 receives from the user a query. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may receive from user 104 a query aboutif there are plans for Friday. Process 900 proceeds to 904.

At 904, control circuitry 504 detects other users within the area aroundthe user. For example, control circuitry 504 may detect that Bob iswithin a certain specified distance of Joe. Process 900 proceeds to 906.

At 906, control circuitry 504 parses the query into a set of words. Forexample, Joe's query may be “What are my plans for Friday?” may beparsed into a set of words including “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.Process 900 proceeds to 908.

At 908, control circuitry 504 retrieves, from the database of indexedconversations, a set of entries from the database of indexedconversations, where each entry in the database of indexed conversationsincludes a portion of a conversation, a record of users participating inthe conversation, and a set of keywords associated with the conversationand where the corresponding record of users for each entry in the set ofentries includes the user and the other users within the area. Forexample, the database 202 may have an entry with a portion ofconversation that includes the words “Let's plan to have dinner onFriday night. Yes, that works,” a list of keywords such as plan, dinner,Friday, and a list of participants such as Bill, Bob, and Joe. Process900 proceeds to 910.

At 910, control circuitry 504 identifies an entry with a set of keywordsthat matches the set of words from the parsed query. For example,control circuitry 504 may identify an entry with the keywords “plan”,“dinner”, and “Friday”. Process 900 proceeds to 912.

At 912, control circuitry 504 generates a response to the query based onthe determined context clues related to the query. For example, controlcircuitry 504 may generate multiple responses with varying levels ofdetail about plans for dinner, some of which include restaurants andtimes, based on the conversation, and proceed to filter the responsesbased on the specific words of the query. Process 900 proceeds to 914.

At 914, control circuitry 504 filters out segments of the response basedthe other users within the area around the user and a set of rules. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may remove a segment of a response “tohave sex” from a response which would otherwise have been “You plan tohave dinner on Friday and go home to have sex”, based on detecting thepresence of users under a threshold age. Process 900 proceeds to 916.

At 916, control circuitry provides to the user the response to thequery. For example, control circuitry 504 may play back the appropriateresponse on a user device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 9 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 9 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 9.

FIG. 10 is another flowchart an illustrative process 1000 for replyingto queries based on indexed conversations and context, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure.

At 1002, control circuitry 504 receives from the user a query. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may receive from user 104 a query aboutif there are plans for Friday. Process 1000 proceeds to 1004.

At 1004, control circuitry 504 monitors an area around the user. Forexample, the media guidance application may record the users that enterand exit an area via camera or by tracking the user's personal devicesto find that users Bob and Joe are in the area. Process 1000 proceeds to1006.

At 1006, control circuitry 504 detects other users within the areaaround the user. For example, control circuitry 504 may detect that Bobis within a certain specified distance of Joe. Process 1000 proceeds to1008.

At 1008, control circuitry 504 parses the query into a set of words. Forexample, Joe's query may be “What are my plans for Friday?” may beparsed into a set of words including “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.Process 1000 proceeds to 1010.

At 1010, control circuitry 504 accesses a database of indexedconversations, where each entry in the database of indexed conversationsincludes a portion of a conversation, a record of users participating inthe conversation, and a set of keywords associated with theconversation. Process 1000 proceeds to 1012.

At 1012, control circuitry 504 retrieves, from the database of indexedconversations, a set of entries from the database of indexedconversations, where the corresponding record of users for each entry inthe set of entries includes the user 104. For example, the database 202may have an entry with a portion of conversation that includes the words“Let's plan to have dinner on Friday night. Yes, that works,” a list ofkeywords such as plan, dinner, Friday, and a list of participants suchas Bill, Bob, and Joe. Process 1000 proceeds to 1014.

At 1014, control circuitry 504 searches each set of keywords associatedwith each entry in the set of entries for a set of keywords that matchesthe set of words from the parsed query. For example, control circuitry504 may search for entries that include keywords such as “plan” and“Friday” based on the words “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday” from thequery. Process 1000 proceeds to 1016.

At 1016, control circuitry 504 identifies an entry with the matching setof keywords from the parsed query. For example, control circuitry 504may identify an entry with the keywords “plan”, “dinner”, and “Friday”.Process 1000 proceeds to 1018.

At 1018, control circuitry 504 processes the relevant portion of theconversation from the identified entry to determine context cluesrelated to the query. For example, control circuitry 504 may process theconversation to find the portion stating “Let's plan to have dinner onFriday”. Process 1000 proceeds to 1020.

At 1020, control circuitry 504 generates a response to the query basedon the determined context clues related to the query. For example, thecontrol circuitry 504 may generate multiple responses with varyinglevels of detail about plans for dinner, some of which includerestaurants and times, based on the conversation, and proceed to filterthe responses based on the specific words of the query. Process 1000proceeds to 1022.

At 1022, control circuitry 504 compares the other users within the areaaround the user to a set of rules. Process 1000 proceeds to 1024.

At 1024, control circuitry 504 determines a level of privacy based onthe comparing. Control circuitry 504 may determine the level of privacybased on whether identities of each of the other users meet the set ofrules. Process 1000 proceeds to 1026.

At 1026, control circuitry 504 filters out segments of the responsebased on the level of privacy. For example, control circuitry 504 mayremove a segment of a response “to have sex” from a response which wouldotherwise have been “You plan to have dinner on Friday and go home tohave sex”, based on detecting the presence of users under a thresholdage. Process 1000 proceeds to 1028.

At 1028, control circuitry 504 provides to the user the response to thequery. For example, control circuitry 504 may play back the appropriateresponse on a user device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 10 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 10 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 10.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1100 for processing aquery received from the user, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure.

At 1102, control circuitry 504 receives an indication that the userintends to provide a query. For example, control circuitry 504 mayreceive a signal word or phrase such as “Hello World” to indicate thatthe user intends to provide a query. Process 1100 proceeds to 1104.

At 1104, control circuitry 504 terminates recording of a conversation ofthe user. For example, control circuitry 504 may record allconversations in the area when users are present and upon hearing thesignal word or phrase, terminate the recording. Process 1100 proceeds to1106.

At 1106, control circuitry 504 records the query provided by the user.For example, control circuitry 504 may receive user input via amicrophone or other audio input equipment. Process 1100 proceeds to1108.

At 1108, control circuitry 504 processes query into a set of words. Forexample, Joe's query may be “What are my plans for Friday?” may beparsed into a set of words including “what”, “my”, “plans”, “Friday”.Process 1100 proceeds to 1110.

At 1110, control circuitry 504 tags each word of the set of words as apart of speech or category. For example, “what” is a question wordrequiring a noun answer and “Friday” is a day of the week.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 11 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 11 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1200 for detecting otherusers in monitored area around the user, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

At 1202, control circuitry 504 records activity of an area designated bythe user. For example, control circuitry 504 may monitor a specifiedroom of a building or a specified distance around a user device. Process1200 proceeds to 1204.

At 1204, control circuitry 504 processes recording for an indication ofa person where an indication includes a face, a voice, or a userequipment device. For example, control circuitry 504 may run a facialrecognition program to determine the identity of a user by the face. Inanother example, control circuitry 504 may run a voice identificationprogram to determine the identity via voice. In another example, controlcircuitry 504 may retrieve the id of the user equipment device andretrieve the identity of the user associated with the user equipmentdevice. Process 1200 proceeds to 1206.

At 1206, control circuitry 504 stores each indication of each person.For example, control circuitry 504 may store the indications in localmemory or on a server. Process 1200 proceeds to 1208.

At 1208, control circuitry 504 may associate, based on the storedindications, each indication with a person from a database to form a setof detected people. For example, control circuitry 504 may determinewhether a person is detected twice based on multiple indications andinclude the person only once in the set of detected people but tag thatperson with multiple indications. Process 1200 proceeds to 1210.

At 1210, control circuitry 504 retrieves a first person of the set ofdetected people. Process 1200 proceeds to 1212.

At 1212, control circuitry 504 determines whether the first person isthe person that provided the query. If the first person provided thequery, process 1200 proceeds to 1214. If not, process 1200 proceeds to1216.

At 1214, control circuitry 504 deletes the first person from the set ofdetected people. Process 1200 proceeds to 1216.

At 1216, control circuitry 504 determines whether there are more peoplein the set of detected people. If control circuitry 504 determines thatthere are more people in the set of detected people, process 1200proceeds to 1210. If not, process 1200 proceeds to 1218. At 1218, theprocess ends.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 12 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 12 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 12.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1300 for searchingdatabase of indexed conversations for a set of entries, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure.

At 1302, control circuitry 504 accesses the database of indexedconversations. Process 1300 proceeds to 1304.

At 1304, control circuitry 504 retrieves a first entry of the database.Process 1300 proceeds to 1306.

At 1306, control circuitry 504 determines whether the first entry has arecord of participating users that includes the user. If controlcircuitry 504 determines that the first entry has a record ofparticipating users that includes the user, process 1300 proceeds to1308. If not, process 1300 proceeds to 1316.

At 1308, control circuitry 504 retrieves a first person from the detectset of other users. Process 1300 proceeds to 1310.

At 1310, control circuitry 504 determines whether the first entry has arecord of participating users that includes the first person. If controlcircuitry 504 determines that the first entry has a record ofparticipating users that includes the first person, process 1300proceeds to 1312. If no, process 1300 proceeds to 1316.

At 1312, stores the entry in the set of entries. Process 1300 proceedsto 1314.

At 1314, control circuitry 504 determines whether another person is inthe detected set of other users. If control circuitry 504 determinesthat another person is in the detected set of other users, process 1300proceeds to 1308. If not, process 1300 proceeds to 1318.

At 1316, control circuitry 504 determines whether there is another entryin the database. If control circuitry 504 determines that there isanother entry in the database, process 1300 proceeds to 1304. If not,process 1300 proceeds to 1318. At 1318, process 1300 ends.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 13 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 13 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 13.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1400 for determining theentry of the set of entries that matches the query, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure.

At 1402, control circuitry 504 retrieves the set of entries. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may retrieve a set of entries includeentry 204. Process 1400 proceeds to 1404.

At 1404, control circuitry 504 retrieves the set of words associatedwith the query. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve thewords “Friday” and “plan” from the query. Process 1400 proceeds to 1406.

At 1406, control circuitry 504 retrieves the first entry of the set ofentries. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve entry 204 fromthe set of entries. Process 1400 proceeds to 1408.

At 1408, control circuitry 504 retrieves the keywords from the firstentry. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve keywords 210 fromentry 204. Process 1400 proceeds to 1410.

At 1410, control circuitry 504 retrieves the first word from the set ofwords. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve “plan” from theset of words. Process 1400 proceeds to 1412.

At 1412, control circuitry 504 retrieves the first keyword of thekeywords. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve “plan” fromkeywords 210. Process 1400 proceeds to 1414.

At 1414, control circuitry 504 determines whether the first word matchesthe first keyword. If control circuitry 504 determines that the firstword matches the first keyword, process 1400 proceeds to 1416. If not,process 1400 proceeds to 1418.

At 1416, control circuitry 504 increases the match counter for the firstentry. For example, if the word “plan” matched the keyword “plan” fromkeywords 210, the counter for the number of found matches increases byone. Process 1400 proceeds to 1418.

At 1418, control circuitry 504 determines whether there is anotherkeyword in the keywords. If control circuitry 504 determines that thereis another keyword in the keywords, process 1400 proceeds to 1412. Ifnot, process 1400 proceeds to 1420.

At 1420, control circuitry 504 determines whether there is another wordin the set of words. If control circuitry 504 determines that there isanother word in the set of words, process 1400 proceeds to 1410. If not,process 1400 proceeds to 1422.

At 1422, control circuitry 504 determines whether the match counter forthe first entry exceeds the stored maximum count. For example, if thereis a previous entry had a total of 1 match and entry 204 has a matchcounter of 2 matches, the match counter exceeds the stored maximumcount. If control circuitry 504 determines that the match counter forthe first entry exceeds the stored maximum count, process 1400 proceedsto 1424. If not, process 1400 proceeds to 1426.

At 1424, control circuitry 504 stores the match counter for the firstentry as the maximum count. Process 1400 proceeds to 1426.

At 1426, control circuitry 504 determines whether there is another entryin the set of entries. If control circuitry 504 determines that there isanother entry in the set of entries, process 1400 proceeds to 1406. Ifnot, process 1400 proceeds to 1428.

At 1428, control circuitry 504 retrieves the entry associated with themaximum count.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 14 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 14 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 14.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1500 for generating a setof response to the query, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure.

At 1502, control circuitry 504 retrieves an identified entry from thedatabase. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve entry 204.Process 1500 proceeds to 1504.

At 1505, control circuitry 504 retrieves the portion of the conversationstored in the entry. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve theportion “Let's plan to have dinner on Friday” from entry 204. Process1500 proceeds to 1506.

At 1506, control circuitry 504 retrieves the set of words associatedwith the query. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve thewords “what”, “plan”, and “Friday”. Process 1500 proceeds to 1508.

At 1508, control circuitry 504 determines a set of matched words. Theset of matched words includes the words that are included in both theset of words from the query as well as found in the portion of theconversation. For example, a set of matched words could be “plan” and“Friday”. Control circuitry 504 may find the set of matched words duringthe process 1400 or may separately search the portion of theconversation for words found in the set of words. Process 1500 proceedsto 1510.

At 1510, control circuitry 504 generates a set of templates from thematched words. Control circuitry 504 may access a database of templatesto generate a set of templates based on the matched words. Each templatemay be a generic response with blank spots tagged with specificcategories of words to be filled in. For example, the word “plan” maygenerate the templates of “Yes, there is a plan on (day of week)” and“No, there is not a plan on (day of week)”. Control circuitry 504 mayuse the set of matched words together. For example, the words “plan” and“Friday” may also generate the template responses of “Yes, there areplans for (noun/activity) on Friday” and “No, there are no plans for(noun/activity) on Friday”. Each template response may be tagged with adefault privacy level. Process 1500 proceeds to 1512.

At 1512, control circuitry 504 searches the portion for words withcategories that match a template from the set of templates. For example,control circuitry 504 searches the portion of the conversation for anoun that is related to an activity and finds the word “dinner”. Process1500 proceeds to 1514.

At 1514, control circuitry 504 generates a set of responses to the querybased on the word or phrase and the set of templates. For example,control circuitry 504 may generate a response “Yes, there are plans fordinner on Friday”, “No, there are no plans for dinner on Friday”, and“You plan to have dinner on Friday”. Process 1500 proceeds to 1516.

At 1516, control circuitry 504 filters the set of responses to the querybased on the portion of the conversation and set of words. For example,the portion of the conversation “Let's have dinner on Friday” does notinclude a word in the negative category and so the response “No, thereare no plans for dinner on Friday” is not appropriate. In anotherexample, the set of words includes a question word “What” which is notassociated with a yes/no answer and so “Yes, there are plans for dinneron Friday” is not appropriate.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 15 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 15 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 15.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1600 for determining aprivacy level, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At 1602, control circuitry 504 retrieves the set of detected otherusers. For example, control circuitry 504 may retrieve the identities ofusers 106 and 108. Process 1600 proceeds to 1604.

At 1604, control circuitry 504 retrieves the set of rules. The set ofrules determine the level of privacy. The set of rules may includespecific rules for a level of privacy based on specific identities,rules for a level of privacy based on age or other characteristic of auser, or rules for a level of privacy based on the content of the queryor other related information. The rules may be user-generated, createdby default, or generated by control circuitry 504 based on monitoring ofthe user. Process 1600 proceeds to 1606.

At 1606, control circuitry 504 retrieves the first person in the set ofdetected other users. Process 1600 proceeds to 1608.

At 1608, control circuitry 504 retrieves the first rule in the set ofrules. For example, the first rule may be that the level of privacy ishigh if a user is under the age of 10. Process 1600 proceeds to 1610.

At 1610, control circuitry 504 determines the level of privacy based onthe first rule and the first person. For example, control circuitry 504may compare the age of user 108 to the threshold age indicated in thefirst rule to determine that the privacy level does not need to be high.Process 1600 proceeds to 1612.

At 1612, control circuitry 504 determines whether the level of privacyis a higher level of privacy then the current set level. For example, ifuser 108 was below the age threshold and so the first rule required thelevel of privacy be high, but the current set level of privacy was low,control circuitry 504 would determine that the level did not match. INanother example, if user 108 was above the age threshold, so the firstrule did not require that the level of privacy be high, and the currentset level of privacy was high, control circuitry 504 may determine thatthe level of privacy did not match but it would not determine that thelevel of privacy needed to be increased. The default level of privacymay be set automatically or manually at the time of the originalconversation. If control circuitry 504 determines that the level ofprivacy is a higher level of privacy than the current set level, process1600 proceeds to 1614. If not, process 1600 proceeds to 1616.

At 1614, control circuitry 504 sets the current privacy level to thedetermined level of privacy. For example, if the current set level ofprivacy is low and it was determined that the level of privacy wasrequired to be high, the current privacy level is set to high. Process1600 proceeds to 1616.

At 1616, control circuitry 504 determines whether there is another rulein the set of rules. If control circuitry 504 determines that there isanother rule in the set of rules, process 1600 proceeds to 1608. If not,process 1600 proceeds to 1618.

At 1618, control circuitry 504 determines whether there is anotherperson in the set of detected other users. If control circuitry 504determines that there is another person in the set of detected otherusers, process 1600 proceeds to 1606. If not, process 1600 proceeds to1620. At 1620, process 1600 ends.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 16 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 16 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 16.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart an illustrative process 1700 for providing anappropriate response from the set of responses to the user, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

At 1702, control circuitry 504 retrieves the set level of privacy. Forexample, control circuitry 504 may have set the level of privacy tohigh. Process 1700 proceeds to 1704.

At 1704, control circuitry 504 retrieves the generated response to thequery. Process 1700 proceeds to 1706.

At 1706, control circuitry 504 retrieves the first segment of theresponse to the query. Process 1700 proceeds to 1708.

At 1708, control circuitry 504 determines whether the first segmentmeets the requirements of the level of privacy. The response may betagged with a default level of privacy based on the associated template.For example, the segments of “You have plans for dinner” and “on Friday”both meet any requirements of privacy but “and then go home to have sex”does not. In cases where a high level of privacy is required due thepresence of a user under a threshold age, the segments of “You haveplans for dinner” and “on Friday” meet the requirement but “and then gohome to have sex” does not. If control circuitry 504 determines that thefirst response meets the requirements of the level of privacy, process1700 proceeds to 1712. If not, process 1700 proceeds to 1710.

At 1710, control circuitry 504 deletes the first segment from theresponse. For example, the response “You have plans to have dinner onFriday and then go home to have sex” becomes “You have plans to havedinner on Friday” once the segment of “and then go home to have sex” isdeleted. Process 1700 proceeds to 1712.

At 1712, control circuitry 504 determines whether there is anotherresponse in the set of responses. If control circuitry 504 determinesthat there is another response in the set of responses, process 1700proceeds to 1706. If not, process 1700 proceeds to 1714.

At 1714, control circuitry 504 provides the response to the user.Control circuitry 504 may provide the response to a user device forplayback. For example, control circuitry 504 may play back response toJoe on Joe's user device.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 17 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 17 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 17.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted that the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

1-51. (canceled)
 52. A method for providing portions of conversationsbased on presence of other users, the method comprising: creating a datastructure of plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises: (a) anutterance and (b) a list of users in a vicinity of the utterance beingspoken; receiving a voice query; creating a second list of users in thevicinity of the voice query; comparing the second list of users in thevicinity of the voice query to the list of users in each entry in thedata structure to generate a filtered data structure, wherein thefiltered data structure comprises only entries with a list of users thatmatches the second list of users in the vicinity of the voice query;determining a level of privacy based on the second list of users in thevicinity of the voice query; searching entries in the filtered datastructure to identify content relevant to the voice query; generating anappropriate response to the voice query based on the determined level ofprivacy and the content relevant to the voice query identified by thesearching entries in the filtered data structure; and playing theappropriate response, wherein the playing comprises providing at least aportion of the content relevant to the voice query identified by thesearching entries in the filtered data structure.
 53. The method ofclaim 52 wherein the utterance comprises a portion of a conversationamong the list of users in the vicinity and a set of keywords associatedwith the conversation and the each entry in the data structure furthercomprises links to supplemental information corresponding to the set ofkeywords.
 54. The method of claim 53 further comprising; recording thevoice query; and processing the voice query into a set of words.
 55. Themethod of claim 54 further comprising: comparing for each entry amongthe entries in the filtered data structure, the corresponding set ofkeywords to the set of words from the parsed query; and selecting theentry in the filtered data structure based on the comparison.
 56. Themethod of claim 55 wherein playing back further comprises providinglinks to supplemental information of the selected entry in the filtereddata structure.
 57. The method of claim 55 wherein determining the levelof privacy further comprises determining the level of privacy based onwhether one or more keywords in the set of keywords corresponding to theselected entry meet a set of rules.
 58. The method of claim 52 whereindetermining the level of privacy further comprises determining the levelof privacy based on whether identities of each user in the second listof users in the vicinity of the voice query meet a set of rules.
 59. Themethod of claim 52 comparing users in the second list of users withusers in the first list of users.
 60. The method of claim 59 furthercomprising determining that at least one user among the users in thesecond list of users is same as a user among the users in the list ofusers based on the comparison.
 61. The method of claim 59 furthercomprising determining that a number of the users in the second list ofusers the list is same as a number of the users in the second list basedon the comparison.
 62. A system for providing portions of conversationsbased on presence of other users, the system comprising controlcircuitry configured to: create a data structure of plurality ofentries, wherein each entry comprises: (a) an utterance and (b) a listof users in a vicinity of the utterance being spoken; receive a voicequery; create a second list of users in the vicinity of the voice query;compare the second list of users in the vicinity of the voice query tothe list of users in each entry in the data structure to generate afiltered data structure, wherein the filtered data structure comprisesonly entries with a list of users that matches the second list of usersin the vicinity of the voice query; determine a level of privacy basedon the second list of users in the vicinity of the voice query; searchentries in the filtered data structure to identify content relevant tothe voice query; generate an appropriate response to the voice querybased on the determined level of privacy and the content relevant to thevoice query identified by the searching entries in the filtered datastructure; and play the appropriate response, wherein the playingcomprises provide at least a portion of the content relevant to thevoice query identified by the searching entries in the filtered datastructure.
 63. The system of claim 62 wherein the utterance comprises aportion of a conversation among the list of users in the vicinity and aset of keywords associated with the conversation and the each entry inthe data structure further comprises links to supplemental informationcorresponding to the set of keywords.
 64. The system of claim 63 whereinthe control circuitry is configured to: record the voice query; andprocess the voice query into a set of words.
 65. The system of claim 64wherein the control circuitry is configured to: compare for each entryamong the entries in the filtered data structure, the corresponding setof keywords to the set of words from the parsed query; and select theentry in the filtered data structure based on the comparison.
 66. Thesystem of claim 65 wherein the control circuitry is configured to:provide links to supplemental information of the selected entry in thefiltered data structure.
 67. The system of claim 65 wherein the controlcircuitry is configured to: determine the level of privacy based onwhether one or more keywords in the set of keywords corresponding to theselected entry meet a set of rules.
 68. The system of claim 62 whereinthe control circuitry is configured to: determine the level of privacybased on whether identities of each user in the second list of users inthe vicinity of the voice query meet a set of rules.
 69. The system ofclaim 62 wherein the control circuitry is configured to: compare usersin the second list of users with users in the first list of users. 70.The system of claim 69 wherein the control circuitry is configured to:determine that at least one user among the users in the second list ofusers is same as a user among the users in the list of users based onthe comparison.
 71. The system of claim 69 wherein the control circuitryis configured to: determine that a number of the users in the secondlist of users the list is same as a number of the users in the secondlist based on the comparison.